Etymology
First attested in English c.1600, the word "navy" came via Old French navie, "fleet of ships", from the Latin navigium, "a vessel, a ship, bark, boat", from navis, "ship" and from Sanskrit "नाव" (Nav), "ship". in Persian "nav" (ship) probably from shenav or ashenav (swim) from avesta (old Iranian language) "sna" in Sanskrit "sna" ( The word "naval" came from Latin navalis, "pertaining to ship"; cf. Greek "ναῦς" (naus), "ship", "ναύτης" (nautes), "seaman, sailor" (the earliest attested reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek na-u-do-mo, "shipbuilders", written in Linear B syllabic script).
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Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)